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The wildly successful ’80s comedy Caddyshack is famous for it’s nearly nonexistent script. Supposedly, the script only contained twenty minutes worth of dialogue, and the rest of the movie was largely improvised.
Although it worked wonders for this film, against all odds, this strategy is surely a guarantee for disaster. A script not only gives a movie its direction and purpose, but it’s a huge organizational tool. It allows the movie’s writer and director to adequately prepare for filming and to visually map out all of the movie’s components.
Just as a script serves as a movie’s backbone, a “storyboard” is a vital tool for any professional PowerPoint presentation, and it’s an essential part of the process here at SlideGenius. A storyboard is essentially a custom-tailored spreadsheet designed for planning out a presentation slide by slide, and it’s something we use for every presentation we create.
Storyboarding is the biggest step toward organizing your presentation, but there are several other important techniques useful before even opening up PowerPoint.
Your Topic
Condense the meaning or purpose of your speech down to a single sentence. If that task seems impossible, then it might be time to revise and trim the fat off your topic. After you put your presentation into its simplest form, make sure every slide you create contributes to this idea encapsulated in this sentence.
Pay Attention to Your Slide Headings
Do you have a lot of (Continued) slides? Do all of your headings appear to be similar or boasting about the merits of your business or product? This could be a sign that the presentation you’re creating could be more well rounded.
Cut the Word Count
After you’ve gone through and created your slides, go back and reduce as much as humanly possible. Question whether adjacent slides can be consolidated, or whether the information on the slides is made redundant by your talking points, rather than being complimentary.
Remember, an audience retains information from presentations much more effectively when slides have a small amount of information on them, and merely compliment what the speaker is saying. A cluttered presentation is often a sign of lack of planning.
After you’ve done this, go back through and once again, ask yourself, “Does each slide go along with the meaning of my presentation?” If you planned your PowerPoint presentation correctly, this should be the easiest step.
References:
“Caddyshack.” Rottentomatoes.
“Study Shows Simplicity Is Key When Creating a PowerPoint Presentation.” SlideGenius. July 24, 2013.
